A New Song

Many people take comfort in the beautiful poetry of the book of Psalms. It’s a book in which we see our own humanity with its frailties and failures, while seeing the almightiness of victory and strength in God alone. The verse that comes to mind today is the first part of Psalm 96:1, Sing a new song to the Lord. There are many hymns and praise songs with more being written every day. Is this what the verse is instructing of us? To learn newly written songs? Actually, the meaning goes far deeper. It’s not about a recently developed song, but about an element of us being restored and reinvigorated.

Like David, who wrote most of the Psalms, we find ourselves in perplexing situations. We face anxiety, fear, sorrow, and doubts. Our enemy, Satan, seizes every opportunity to whisper lies that there are no answers, fear is our lot in life, and sorrow and doubt will never go away. These lies can weigh us down, rendering it difficult to even think of a new song, let alone sing one, but this is what we must do. A new song is renewed praise. It is fresh encouragement that comes through praising. It may understandably be asked, Am I to thank God for terrible things that happen in my life, to my loved ones, and in situations around the world?

The above attitude means our focus in on the sorrow itself. It is saturated with fear. Our focus sets our course. As an athlete keeps eyes looking at the goal, so our eyes direct the course on which we run. Paul said, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us (Philippians 3:14 NLT). When we choose to keep our eyes looking at Jesus as we run our race through life’s journey, then songs of praise, refreshing us, comes to our mind and sings from our heart. Our new songs are heart songs that proclaim praises to Jesus.

Troubles, deep troubles, come to us all. We have a choice: focus on the troubles only, and fear will grow, or focus on Jesus who leads us through the troubles, and joy supersedes all our anxiety. A new song is fresh songs of praise no matter our difficulty. Praise and worry cannot co-exist. One will rule over the other. What governs our mood; be it joy and calm or fear and worry, depends upon our focus. Troubles or Jesus? I hope we each choose Jesus who calms the storm, rather than the storm itself. One has us sinking in despair; while the other has us walking on water.